Are Selfies Turning Into Killfies?

It’s the ‘selfie’ world!! The digital nomads have gone crazy over the trend of taking selfies. The day it was discovered that people do not need the support of anyone to click a photograph, was the day when the selfie revolution began. What no one knew, was that there are pros and cons to taking selfies. The tragic stories poured when many lost their lives while clicking selfies in dangerous zones. India has been reported with 127 such cases, recorded as the highest number of selfie deaths. It has also been observed that the maximum number of these cases happened near water or cliffs.

A study conducted by researchers from Carnegie Mellon University and the Indraprastha Institute of Information Technology (IIIT) has analyzed the reasons in the wake of selfie deaths. The insights of the study reports that the deaths that occurred were due to heights, water, trains, weapons, vehicles, electricity and animals.

According to MIT Technology Review, 15 people died while taking a selfie in 2014; in 2015 this rose to 39, and in 2016 there were 73 deaths in the first eight months of the year. (https://www.technologyreview.com/s/602862/data-scientists-chart-the-tragic-rise-of-selfie-deaths/)

A campaign on Safe Selfie run by Samsung India has also reached out to students of schools and colleges from Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai and Lucknow. The prime vision of it is to spread the message across all the media platforms. Protective measures have been initiated by the Maharashtra Tourism Development Corporation (MTDC) and Karnataka Government as they have launched online and offline campaigns on taking safe selfies. The campaign draws attention on the need of awareness and educates the tourists about dangers of carefree selfies. Slogans are put up near beaches, forts and deep valley cliffs in the state with like ‘Say No to Killfie’, ‘Take Selfies Responsibly’ and ‘Risky Selfie Thrills and Kills.’ Similar to these, other states should also proactively take out safety measures and run campaigns to aware the visitors at the unsafe spots.